Will the Next Ronald Reagan Please Stand up.
As our country limps along on the world’s stage, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) and Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), have vowed to get America back on track and plan on using President Reagan’s stance on foreign policy to bring back morning in America.
Over the past week the public has watched as Senator Ted Cruz and Senator Rand Paul, have used the mainstream media to discuss their stance on foreign policy and why they are more Reaganesque than the other.
Senator Cruz believes we as a nation have a responsibility to defend our values, much like Reagan did during the Cold War when he stood in front of the Brandenburg Gate and said, ‘Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.’
In an interview on ABC’s “This Week” Senator Cruz said, ‘‘I think U.S. leadership is critical in the world, and I agree with Senator Paul that we should be very reluctant to deploy military force abroad. But I think there is a vital role, just as Ronald Reagan did. . . The United States has a responsibility to defend our values.”
Senator Paul believes a more diplomatic approach is the stance Reagan would take and in a recent Op-Ed pointed out, “there is a time for diplomacy and the strategic use of soft power, such as now with Russia. Diplomacy requires resolve but also thoughtfulness and intelligence.”
The showdown between Cruz and Paul began shortly after Paul won the CPAC straw poll. For a second year in a row, Senator Paul won the annual CPAC Presidential straw poll with a resounding 31% of the vote and Senator Cruz placed a distant second with only 11%.
Though neither have announced an intention to run, it is no shock that both Senator Rand Paul and Senator Cruz have their sights set on 2016. Although it is apparent they are both laying the ground work by using the recent tragic events abroad and the Conservative’s love for President Reagan to appeal to voters early on.
While both senators jockey for position in an attempt to win the title of conservative front-runner in 2016, Americans slowly begin to wake up to the tragedy that is our current foreign policy.